Featured photos

Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

First in a series: An indepth analysis of ICBC claims data finds three areas of North Surrey that top B.C. for auto thefts. But downtown Vancouver and Metrotown have the most vehicle break-ins

RCMP Sgt. Gary Rodricks stands in the parking lot at Scott Road Skytrain station in Surrey. A lot of large surface parkng lots, like this one, and a poor neighbourhood help explain why North Surrey is a hotspot for vehicles thefts, says Rodricks, head of Surrey RCMP’s Auto Crime Target Team.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop
, Vancouver Sun

METRO VANCOUVER -- North Surrey has the worst auto theft problem in B.C., with rates up to four times the provincial average, according to an analysis of ICBC claims.

Neighbourhoods around downtown Vancouver, Metrotown and north Richmond are the worst spots for vehicle break-ins.

To better understand auto crime in B.C., The Vancouver Sun asked ICBC for its raw data on auto crime.

The data provided by ICBC did not include personal information.

To calculate which areas of B.C. have the worst per capita rates of auto crime, The Sun analyzed the past three years of ICBC claims by postal code area and compared that to each postal code’s population in 2011. There are about 190 postal code areas in B.C., each corresponding to the first three digits of postal codes.

An interactive map showing auto crime rates in every such area in B.C. is online at vancouversun.com. Using the map, readers can see how auto crime rates in their neighbourhood compare and how auto crime has changed in their area over the past 10 years.

The Sun’s approach is better than simply counting the number of crimes in each neighbourhood, as it accounts for differences in population among postal code areas.

But it’s not perfect, as some areas have many visitors by car but not necessarily a large permanent population. For example, many suburban residents drive downtown to work and people from across Metro Vancouver drive to Burnaby’s Metrotown to shop.

There are also a handful of lightly populated postal codes that have misleadingly high auto crime rates because there are so few people in them.

For example, V6W in southeast Richmond technically has the highest auto crime rate in the province — 15 times the provincial average — but only nine cars were stolen there last year. Its rate is so high because its resident population is only 1,175, far smaller than most other postal codes.

Still, the analysis gives some indication of where the region’s auto crime hot spots are.

The analysis found that three postal code areas in North Surrey — V3R, V3T and V3V — have among the worst stolen auto rates in the province.

The worst of the three, V3T — an area that includes three SkyTrain stations and Central City Shopping Centre — had an average annual stolen auto rate of 653 per 100,000 residents, more than four times the provincial average of 143.

RCMP Sgt. Gary Rodricks, head of Surrey’s Auto Crime Target Team, said North Surrey’s high rate of auto crime is likely due to a combination of poor neighbourhoods and large parking lots. While Surrey has been trying hard to revitalize North Surrey, Rodricks said, the area remains one of the poorest parts of the city and a popular place for criminals to congregate.

“Some of the renters are good, some of the renters are not so good,” Rodricks said. “I joined the RCMP in 1993 and some of the problem apartment buildings then are the same problem apartment buildings we have now.”

Combine that with huge surface parking lots — at the Scott Road and King George park and rides and several local malls — and you’ve got a recipe for high auto crime, he said.

The last thing a car thief wants is to be surprised by a vehicle’s owner coming back to their car. That makes many of the cars parked in North Surrey particularly attractive, said Rodricks: People commuting to work on SkyTrain are away from their cars all day.

•

While North Surrey is B.C.’s hot spot for stolen cars, it’s not the hot spot for thefts from automobiles.

Four downtown postal code areas — V6A, V6B, V6C and V6Z — are among the worst for auto break-ins. Joining them for high break-in rates are V5H, Burnaby’s Metrotown, and V6X, an area of north Richmond that includes three Canada Line stations, the River Rock casino and Aberdeen Centre.

Metrotown, for example, has a theft from auto rate of 1,189 per 100,000 residents, four times the provincial average of 270.

Of the three north Surrey neighbourhoods with high stolen auto rates, only one — V3T — also makes the top 10 list for thefts from auto.

Det.-Const. Phil Ens, head of the Vancouver police Auto Crime Enforcement Team, said downtown Vancouver is a bad spot for car break-ins for one main reason: tourists.

Most Vancouver residents have been trained — by years of high property crime — to remove all valuables from their car and not leave even loose change in a visible spot. Visitors from the U.S. and overseas aren’t so careful.

“People are not as [crime] savvy when they’re coming from out of town,” said Ens.

Tourists are a more attractive target for another reason, he said: they’re less likely to show up to testify.

Ens said several court cases against thieves in Vancouver have fallen apart when police were unable to get the victim to return to court to testify.

VPD have had some luck getting tourists to sign affidavits before they go home, Ens said. But thieves know their chances of going to jail are less when they hit a tourist’s vehicle and so they specifically target cars with out-of-province plates. That’s also why VPD puts out-of-province plates on many of its bait cars, said Ens.

Another factor that makes downtown an attractive target for thieves, said Ens, is that many cars are parked in multi-level underground parkades, an environment that makes it much easier for thieves to hit many cars in a row.

“When you’re in an underground parkade, you’re in control because you can hear things coming,” said Ens. “If thieves hear something, they can step in the shadows, the car goes by, and they’re back to work.”

While downtown Vancouver has some of the highest rates of vehicle break-ins in the province, the area has relatively low rates of stolen autos, despite the thousands of cars that come downtown every day.

Ens said that’s because those same multi-level parkades that make breaking into cars so easy also make stealing the car itself pretty difficult.

“Theft of auto is more attractive in an open area because you can be gone quicker,” said Ens.

In contrast, a thief stealing a car in a parkade usually has only one way out, and that way is typically blocked by a gate and an attendant who will see the thief’s face.

Outside downtown Vancouver, some of the highest theft-from-auto rates in the province can be found in the neighbourhood around Metrotown. And it’s no great mystery why: Metropolis at Metrotown is the largest shopping centre in B.C. and has more than 8,000 free parking spots, many of them underground.

Burnaby RCMP Staff Sgt.-Major John Buis said the sheer size of Metropolis may contribute to the problem: People who are usually good about not leaving valuables in their car tend to make an exception when they’re on a big shop.

“You’re not going to one place. It’s usually five, six, seven, 10 different shops,” said Buis. “And if you’re loaded down, that’s a burden. So you go back to the car. And if someone’s watching, you just brought 10 boxes back to your car and you’re going back shopping.”

Buis said he can’t say precisely how much of the stuff stolen at Metrotown is still in shopping bags. But he suspects it’s a lot.

“You look at some of these [crime] reports, it’s amazing what people leave in their cars,” he said. “It’s things that are worth thousands of dollars: really nice cameras, iPods, iPads, computers.”

The good news is that, as bad as auto crime is in some parts of Metro Vancouver, things are better than they used to be.

All of the neighbourhoods mentioned above have seen significant drops in both theft of autos and theft from autos in the past 10 years.

For example, while about 200 cars were stolen in the North Surrey neighbourhood of V3T last year, that’s only a third of the 600 that were stolen from that same neighbourhood in 2003.

Vehicle break-ins in the downtown neighbourhood of V6B have gone from 1,300 a year to just 300 and in Metrotown from 800 to 500.

Have you been a victim of auto crime? We want to hear your stories: funny, sad or unbelievable. Email reporter Chad Skelton at cskelton@vancouversun.com and tell us how auto crime has affected you. If you've got any photos that help illustrate your story, be sure to attach them to the email.

RCMP Sgt. Gary Rodricks stands in the parking lot at Scott Road Skytrain station in Surrey. A lot of large surface parkng lots, like this one, and a poor neighbourhood help explain why North Surrey is a hotspot for vehicles thefts, says Rodricks, head of Surrey RCMP’s Auto Crime Target Team.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.